The Turbografix-16 was fading fast in the early 1990s and NEC/Hudson needed a guarenteed 100% sure-fire hit to save the system from demise. Churning out a new Bonk game every year wasn't working out anymore, and the spin-off to the caveman character, Air Zonk, failed to set the industry on fire. What to do? How about taking Bonk and fashioning an RPG around him?

The Bonk RPG was fast-tracked in 1993 as Hudson and NEC turned all their attention to the project. Electronic Gaming Monthly got the scoop on the game and ran exclusive pictures and a detailed preview of the game that depicted Bonk teaming up with new unnamed characters and a few old enemies to battle King Drool once again. Screenshots of the game showed Bonk and friends traveling on the map screen as well as some character art. Interestingly enough, screenshots of an RPG failed to show pictures of any kind of battle scenes.

So where'd the game go, and why haven't you probably heard of it until now? The game was 20% complete when NEC pulled the plug on the TG16 in the USA and began a last-ditch effort to save the system in Japan. Seeing as how Bonk was more popular in America than Japan, the Bonk RPG was put on hold indefinitely. It never resurfaced and was banished to video game lore.

Bonking is also a term used in distance running and endurance races like the Ironman triathlon. As SuperDan2K points out, it means to run out of energy. This is a physiological condition caused when muscles become saturated with lactic acid, or when runners' natural energy stores are depleted. Synonymous with hitting the wall. Many marathon runners experience such a feeling at around mile 18 of the 26.2 mile run.

Severe pain occurs in leg muscles, mostly, and also in shoulder, back and upper arm muscles. Eilte runners manage to prevent bonking by conditioning regimens, and can put off some of the effects by taking quick digestion sugar mixtures and exercise fluids like Gatorade during the final stages of the marathon. They also say that pain is inevitable for the competitive marathoner or triathlete, and that pain management is necessary.

To get some non sexual content onto this piece of html, Bonk, pronounced "beyonk" is of course the capital of the mysterious ethnic conglomerate of Uberwald on the increasingly detailed mapped Discworld.

A rather dark place with narrow streets and houses build like fortresses (to keep the suckers out), Bonk is being ruled by an uneasy triumvirate of Dwarfs, Vampires and Werewolfs. The rule is being enforced by a rather gloomy townwatch which doesn't really know whose will it is enforcing.

For some reason their population seem to have a slight accent and pronounce their "W"'s like "V"s (as in "vot do you vant") their "a"'s like "o"'s and their "th" like a "z" (as is "vot ze hell"),

Culinary highlights are fatsup, beer and sausages with real meat in them.